


Everyone: Get Your Shit Together

by BohemianGrove



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abusive Bro, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Angst, Bipolar Disorder, Child Abuse, Co-Written, Detention, Dirk Strider and Dave's Bro Aren't the Same Person, Drug Abuse, Eridan is Bipolar, Gen, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Not As Tragic as it Sounds Tho, Organized Crime, Physical Abuse, Self-Harm, Suicide Attempt, Vandalism, We're two Europeans who don't know how detention works tho, What beautiful happy tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2018-12-04 09:14:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11552136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BohemianGrove/pseuds/BohemianGrove
Summary: Dave is convinced that everyone's closets have skeletons in them. The kind varies, and some are easier to dust off and bury than others. God only knows what it'll take to get rid of his.





	1. Dave: Vandalize The School

**Author's Note:**

> "In which a wall is improved and the first of many tears are shed. Under the dimming light of the Houston sun, a group of misfits and rebels is created."  
> CARO

Dave was staring contemplatively at a wall. Someone brushed past and hit his backpack, but he didn’t turn to see who it was. The wall was made out of red bricks held together by cracked mortar. There was nothing on it, not even any windows.

 

“I can feel a plan brewing,” Roxy said, looking at her cousin curiously. Dave nodded slowly.

 

“It’s a pretty boring wall, isn’t it? I feel like it could use some… brightening up,” he suggested, moving his gaze from the wall and raising a sly eyebrow. 

 

Roxy’s purple eyes lit up as she let out a quiet  _ ooh- _ sound and smiled. Dimples appeared on her cheeks with the widening grin, her carefully brushed teeth shining. She chuckled mischievously. “Do you mean-?” 

 

Dave gave her a smile and nodded. She squealed and grabbed his hands, squeezing them excitedly. “Oh my gosh, Dave! I can see it in my mind’s eye… Do you have paint or do I need to go shopping?”

 

“I think I have some back home,” he answers. “It’ll be brilliant. We could work around that spot where there’s that little hole thing, see? It could be, like… an ass or something. Do you know how to make caricatures? We should make one of the biology teacher. He deserves it.”

 

“Oh, that one guy? The one with all those… the bobbleheads? Pft, yeah, he’s an asshole. Isn’t he always handing out detention to people?” Roxy giggled.

 

“He gave me an hour last week for eating in class, so, yes,” Dave said and pointed at the wall. “Look: we could put his head there, and he would be making out with one of the bobbleheads…”

 

“E-Excuse me, guys? What’re you talking about?” someone asked. Dave jumped and quickly turned around, leaning against the wall.

 

“Nothing. You shouldn’t listen in, it’s not nice,” he pointed out, trying to sound nonchalant. He put his hands in his pockets and eyed the intruder. The guy was dressed like a rich hipster, too-big glasses hiding his eyebrows and an equally huge scarf covering his neck. Dave thought just the kid’s outfit must have cost more than the entire Strider property.

 

“We’re gonna spray paint the biology teacher! It’s totes illegal so ssh,” Roxy announced loudly, waving at the wall behind her. Dave hushed her and pulled her arm down.

 

“Shut up! Look at him, he’s a textbook snitch,” he muttered through gritted teeth, nodding his head at the guy. He was looking pretty startled and was playing with his earring.

 

“I won’t tell anyone. In fact, I was thinking… Could I join you guys? I-it’s Eridan, by the way. Ampora,” he stuttered nervously, head bowed down. Both Dave and Roxy turned to him, surprised. The Strider raised his eyebrows. “Seriously?”

 

Eridan nodded shakily. He looked like a deer in the headlights, wide eyes darting between the two blondes in front of him. They looked at each other and had some kind of wordless dispute, which ended in Roxy walking to Eridan and wrapping her arm around his shoulders, causing him to jump a little. “Welcome to the Beagle Boys, kiddo.”

 

“Yeah, congratulations. This will undoubtedly be a period in your life which will morph you in many ways and turn you into an entirely different person, but ultimately leave you more fulfilled and happy than you were before. You can never go back to who you were before you joined us, so buckle the fuck in. Also, do you know how to draw dicks?” Dave asked, clapping mockingly. Eridan blinked slowly before letting out a quiet and confused “What?”

 

“Don’t mind him. Davey’s a bit of a blabbermouth, but he’s a good kid, I promise. But seriously though, can you draw? ‘Cuz otherwise what are you even doing here,” Roxy said, pinching his cheek. He shrugged. “My mom always seems really proud of my drawings.”

 

The Strilondes gave each other long and knowing looks. Roxy pat Eridan on the back and smiled reassuringly. “I’m sure you’re fine. Now then! When are we gonna do this?”

 

—

 

Dave’s footsteps echoed from the concrete walls of the urban jungle around him. His hair waved slightly with his movements, but the carefully maintained messy look stayed intact in the calm and windless weather. A dog barked at him from the other side of the street, but he could barely hear it over the loud music coming from his headphones. He kicked a beer can with his crappy knock-off converses, sending it rolling down the street. Other than a few people heading home from the city, there was barely anyone around. The perfect time… for vandalizing public property. 

 

Dave laid down his backpack, the cans of spray paint inside to clacking together. He slowly lowered his headphones around his neck, running his hands through his hair to make sure it didn’t stick to his scalp. Looking around to make sure there wasn’t any onlookers, he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. The flame flickered into existence and burned bright for five seconds before dying out.

 

After a few minutes of smoking in silence, Dave was startled awake from his thoughts by approaching footsteps. He quickly put out the cigarette and threw it on the ground nearby. He turns around to see Roxy jogging to him, blond hair jumping up and down with her steps.

 

“Hooi! Did I keep you waiting? Has the preppy kid come yet?” she asked.

 

“Nope.”

 

“Good, good. So, you’ve got the paint? C’mon, lemme see!” 

 

Dave crouched down and unzipped his bag, revealing three cans full of different colored paint. 

 

“We’ve got black, white and a yellowish beige. I think they’re enough to make this happen,” he said and pulled out three scarves, handing one to Roxy and putting one on himself, covering his mouth and nose.

 

“Hey, guys!” Ampora shouted from across the street. Dave and Roxy hushed him. He loudly whispered a ‘sorry’ and hurried over. “Are we really going to do this?”

 

“Don’t tell me you’ve got cold feet?” Roxy says and helps him put on a scarf as well. He raised his eyebrows apologetically. “Would you be mad if I do?”

 

Dave eyed him and scoffed. “I knew someone who looks like that couldn’t do it.”

 

Eridan’s eyes widened. He seemed to choke on his words before rushing to defend himself, “I can help you! I can, um, carry the bag? I also have an eye for art so I can give you guys critique!”

 

Roxy giggled and pat him on the back. “You’re a good kid. Come on, grab the bag and we’ll get this started!”

 

The painting slowly started to take form. Roxy did most of the drawing, but Dave was the one who thought of what to draw. He decided to make the bobblehead figures have an important role, but they shouldn’t steal the show from the central character in the painting. They also added a speech bubble, just in case someone couldn’t recognize the biology teacher. At one point Eridan insulted Dave’s abilities, which resulted in a white spot on his purple sweater. After that he kept his comments to Roxy, who was thankful for the input. Just as Dave was adding the finishing touches to the pictured bukkake scenario, someone walked up to them.

 

“What the hell are you guys doing?” he asked, tanned hands squeezed into tight fists. Roxy laughed. “What does it look like?”

 

“It looks like you’re spray painting obscenities onto the wall of the school,” he answered. Dave rolled his eyes behind his shades and ignored the interrupter. “Would that dick look better here or behind his head?”

 

“I think it’s fine there,” Roxy said before turning back to the strange guy in a turtleneck. “The word you’re looking for is ‘art’. I mean, just look at it! It’s a very  _ fresh  _ and  _ elegant  _ take on the subject matter, dontcha agree?”

 

“You do know there’s a daycare nearby, right?” he said.

 

Roxy blinked at the guy with the best puppy eyes she could manage. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

“Jesus… You need to fuck off from here, seriously. And cover up that thing!” he shouted and tried to grab the can in Dave’s hand, but only managed to get his hand covered in paint. “Fuck! Look at what you did!”

 

“I think that was your fault,” Eridan said quietly. Shouty gave him a death glare.

 

“I think it’s just about finished! All it needs is- oh fuck. Can you guys hear that?” Dave asked, and ran to peek around the corner of the school. “Oh screw everything. Pack your shit people, we’re gonna have company!”

 

Roxy’s eyes widened when she joined him at the corner. “Who called the cops?”

 

“I dunno, doesn’t matter. Put the cans in the back, we have to run,” Dave said. “You too, Sweater Weather. Both of you.”

 

“My name is Karkat, fuckass! And I’m not going anywhere!” Karkat refused and tried to cross his arms, but his hand was grabbed by Roxy. “Do you wanna get caught with paint hands on the crime scene? Come on!”

 

“Wha- Oh crap, alright!” he cursed and started running. Dave had ran through these streets countless times, chased by cops, thugs and many others. He skillfully navigated through the mazes of houses, the other teenage hooligans and a vigilante doing their best to keep up. The cops would have caught up to them immediately, but Strider was good at staying out of sight. Their escape was however cut short when they came to a tall fence. Dave didn’t think twice about jumping it and Eridan followed him closely, but Karkat wouldn’t budge. Roxy tried to pull him, but he refused to move. “I-Isn’t there some other way? That’s, uhh, a pretty tall fence, I don’t think it’s safe…”

 

“Come  _ on _ ! It’s just a fence, and they had no trouble climbing it!” Roxy said and yanked his arm. He shook his head shakily. “Yeah, well I’m not good at climbing fences.”

 

“Oh for fuck’s sake! Fine, we’ll take another route,” Dave scoffed and started climbing. Roxy side-eyed Karkat curiously, but didn’t say anything. As soon as everyone was back on one side of the fence, they started running back to where they came from - only to find themselves cornered. One of the officers stepped forward. “The police chase is over, kids. How about you come with us now?”

 

\---

 

The walls of the principal’s office were painted a shade of light yellow. They were lined by bookcases filled to the brim with nonfiction of all kinds, arranged in neat rows in alphabetical order. Any spare wall space was covered by calendars and posters, leaving very little yellow color visible. One could argue that hiding all the paint defeated the purpose of painting walls, but principal Burton didn’t care about that. He actually hated the color yellow, and had only chosen it because it’s said to improve concentration. It turns out he was too busy feeling nauseated by the shade to concentrate on anything, leading to the current situation.

 

Karkat felt grateful for the principal’s design choices; reading the posters on the wall was a good distraction from the sensation of doom he was feeling. His back was also hurting due to having to sit up straight, and his forehead was wet with sweat, but mostly he was okay. That was what he tried to believe, at least.

 

“Oh fuck, this is so not fine,” he muttered, finally failing at lying to himself. Eridan looked at him angrily. “No shit, Sherlock!  _ We went to jail! _ ”

 

“What, was it your first time? Look at you, mr. Goody Two-Shoes,” Dave scoffed and have him a mocking smile.

 

“Not being arrested isn’t something to be ashamed of, it’s the norm!” Eridan shouted, voice breaking. He took off his glasses and hid his face in his palms “My parents were so mad…”

 

Dave sighed and shook his head. Roxy pat Eridan on the shoulder apologetically. “Come on, it’s not that bad! At least now you know how awful jail is so you won’t go there again ‘n stuff!”

 

Before Eridan could argue back, the door to the office was opened. Mr. Burton walked in with with a small stack of papers, waving it at the four students.

 

“Will you look at that. Four young rebels, fighting against the system by vandalizing property paid for by your parents’ taxes. You are truly inspirational, taking a stand against… What? What are you even trying to achieve by this?” he asked, slowly sitting into his cushioned armchair. Karkat stood up. “I have no part in this! I tried to stop them, I’m not-”

 

“Save it, Vantas! Do you think I was born yesterday? I’ve already heard whatever pathetic excuse you can come up with. You are all guilty, and you will all be punished. In fact, you should be glad you’re all students in this school. Otherwise I might have turned to the court of law for this,” the principal explained, moving his gaze between the teens sitting in front of him, stopping to glare at each one in turn.

 

“Yup, I’m a student, I totally go to school here,” Roxy snickered. Eridan’s shoulders were shaking, not only because he was crying. Karkat groaned and reluctantly sat back down.

 

“I’m not a fan of long speeches, and I suspect neither are you. So I’m just going to say it: you are all getting three hours of detention. It will be served in three separate occasions of one hour, one this friday and the other two next week. In addition, you will clean up the mess you made this friday during lunch break. Failure to arrive at either will lead to further punishments. Now then, what do you say?” Burton asked and smiled. The kids looked at each other in confusion and shrugged. 

 

“We don’t know, sir,” Dave said. The principal sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Thank you. You’re supposed to say thank you.”

 

His words were echoed by three mumbled thanks from the others and one loud expression of gratitude from Roxy. She waved at him from the door and slammed it shut after them. “Woo, detention! This’ll be fun.”

 

Eridan wiped his eyes with a corner of his detention ticket. He took in a deep, shaky breath and let it out as a whine. “This is going to suck.”


	2. Karkat: Write Bad Poetry (Or Fanfiction)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids serve their punishment, and secrets come to light. Karkat Vantas is 100% done with everyone's shit, including his own.

It was a hot, sunny day, and all through Fuckville, not a soul dared move, not a body stir; except for the coolkid, the hacker, the rich, and the innocent one, who could merely bitch.

“This is bullshit,” he bitched.

“Is it now? You got yourself into this situation by mingling with petty criminals,” Dave taunted, dropping his paint roll back in the bucket. It splattered white, but it didn’t really matter. Everything was already fucking white.

“You know what is the actual bullshit?” he continued, nodding towards the wall, “-the fact that we have to erase this. It took so much effort to create. The wall is boring without any art anyway.”

“And you opted to draw borderline pornographic content on the wall facing the kindergarten?”

“ _See_ , that’s bullshit I’m talking about. You’re forced to sit through hundreds of hours of an old man drilling on about the brilliant dead dudes and their satire and how we should appreciate it even though their authorities didn’t, and you sit through hours of more dead dudes who only painted naked women and it’s ‘art’. Then you do satire and draw naked people and you get into trouble.”

“It’s vandalism if you’re not a dead dude, of course. Only if you are either famous or dead it’s an artwork fighting against the system,” Roxy grinned.

“It’s vandalism if you’re a vandal making a needlessly vulgar murales of a teacher, who is, admittedly, a shitstain, where little kids can see it,” Karkat growled, also putting his roll back in the bucket with perhaps a bit more force than necessary. He ignored the splashes of paint that were added to his already dirty clothes, and the chuckles from Roxy. “Oh, but pardon me, I’m trying to explain something to someone who evidently has the fucking brain capacity of a dead crow. How about we all get back to our fucking work and be done with it?”

“Chill, angry dude, we’re almost done. Sucks you got mixed up with us vandals, right? Did your mom not make brownies for you as punishment? What about you, Ampora kid, did daddy say no more newest phone for a week?”

“A-actually, yes?”  
  
Karkat felt his mouth drop in surprise, unsure of whether he actually screamed ‘are you serious?!’ out loud or not, as Roxy burst into laughter. She toppled over her bucket and spread the rest of the white paint on the ground. Karkat found he lacked the strength to give a flying fuck.

Eridan himself was surprised. That didn’t surprise Karkat. Very few surprises going around for him. It was honestly marvellous that Ampora even had the will to be surprised.

“What- that’s not-”

“Not funny? No, not really,” Dave shrugged, “but I guess it sounds so to someone whose mother probably doesn’t even know she’s in a high school detention. So your daddy’s rich, right? Is it his merit that we got away with just this?”

“Of course it is, you should’ve been suspended!”

“Suspended?!” Eridan squawked, eyes widening behind his glasses in what was almost a comical scene. Almost. It would have been comical if they hadn't been cleaning a mess of pornographic graffiti.

"Yes. Suspended. For a lot. Maybe even expelled in some cases, like Strider here, so kind to be of example."

"Yeah, but we're in luck," Dave Strider himself interrupted, voice so thick with sarcasm that Karkat was sure he could collect the damn thing in a series of little mason jars and keep it as decoration, "because Ampora's daddy is real powerful and shit. Power is a fucking mystery, man, but it sure comes in handy. I get to keep coming here in this hellhole, and all I gotta do is clean this shit and sit with lame people for a few hours. You see? Gotta look at the bright side of things."

"My school record is ruined because of you. Fuck you." Karkat just growled in response. Roxy laughed - again - but there was bite to it this time. When she stopped, she didn’t actually look amused. She was a bit scary.

"I read your school record, Freckles, are you sure you ain't lying?"

"Wow, Freckles, lying is bad, you know?" Dave interjected immediately, waving a finger in Karkat’s general direction with exactly zero feel to it.

"Uhm, guys..." Eridan looked uncomfortable. "We're done, so we can just... Go, right?"

And he was right, Karkat realized, they had been done for a while. Well. That was it.

"Fuck all of you," he growled, and marched away. They could clean up themselves. He had nothing to do with them, their mess, or any of their insinuations.

How the fuck did she even get into his file, to begin with?

* * *

They sat down in a dimly lit classroom after the last bell rang, arriving at almost the same time. Karkat dropped his bag aggressively near the first row window desk, getting a notebook out without deigning the others of so much as a greeting grunt.

Dave Strider walked in five minutes late, and sat in the corner.

There was a very bored guardian holding an eye on the four of them, and a kid that Karkat thought he’d seen around somewhere studying math a few desks over. Roxy was chewing on gum, and for some reason the teacher in charge either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Eridan toyed with his scarf and school supplies, in a kind of constant, agitated fidgeting, that would have grated on Karkat’s nerves, if they weren’t already so grated they were basically finer than cheese on pasta.

He doodled in his notebook until doodles turned into bullet lists of plot points and character development annotations, and the bullet lists turned into sentences, paragraphs, and before he noticed it Roxy was shaking his shoulder, saying something about detention being over and oh cool, is that fanfiction of-

Karkat snapped his notebook closed, and marched out of the room without looking back, holding his story plans tight to his chest. He was only halfway down the corridor when Roxy’s head popped out of the door and yelled that he had forgotten his backpack.

Fuck.

He marched back, cheeks burning with embarrassment, as both Roxy and Dave laughed their asses off, almost falling in the attempt to grab the bag as quickly as possible, then epically failed to walk away slowly and with dignity.

He just half ran to Kankri’s car outside and jumped in, growling “Drive” when his brother moved to speak.

He did have to suffer through one of the his insufferably long rants - something about due punishment and youthful rebellion without causes, and hard lessons - but Karkat had a masterful, absolutely brilliant idea, that consisted in popping his earphones in and turning the music to the maximum. Flawless, really. Which couldn’t be said about his exit, but whatever.

Fuck the Strider-Lalondes. He was still finishing that fanfic next detention.

* * *

He didn’t finish the fanfic next detention. Of fucking course he didn’t.

“We should play a game or something!” Roxy had declared exactly ten minutes before Karkat’s current predicament. Eridan was crying in the corner, clutching his head, trying to stop the bleeding from a scratch with a rapidly swelling arm. Roxy was on the ground, clutching her stomach in laughter. Dave was holding a sword, balancing on the edge of a desk, cursing so loudly Karkat was surprised he had not attracted at least three teachers so far.

Karkat was also maybe screaming, except it was undignified little-girl-screaming, and scrambling away from flaming wood tiles.

“So Jenga was a bad idea,” Roxy said after they had managed to extinguish the fire without setting the fire alarm off (Karkat didn’t know whether to be glad or worried for that particular fact).

“Oh no, it was absolutely brilliant. Almost as brilliant as invading Russia in the winter.”

“So you actually attended History class, Strider, maybe the world still creates some miracles every now and then. Maybe it’s actually going to snow in Texas this year.” Karkat threw the last of the pieces in the trashcan and marched back to his desk,doing absolutely nothing to conceal his stomping. After all, if it did attract a teacher, he would be at his desk. He sat down and got his notebook out, perfectly ready to spend the entire hour studying or just drawing spirals over and over, if it meant not having to interact.

“Maybe we could play truth or dare, instead?”

There was a _snap_ , and the broken pieces of Karkat’s pencil fell on the floor. A splinter lodged itself in his hand, but it couldn’t have been that painful compared to a fucking game of-

“Truth or dare! Eridan, oh-em-gee, that’s actually a wonderful idea, I have, like, a bunch of questions to ask you all already!”

“I would rather ingest a sick horse’s semen.” Karkat muttered. He wasn’t looking at the Strider boy, but he was sure Dave smirked for a fraction of a second.

“Kinky,” he said, and put his feet up on the desk. “I’ll also pass. Fish kid, so will you if you value your dignity. Aw man, no, I just ruined a great potential scene, wait, I take it back, you should totally play.”

“Eridan, truth or dare!” Roxy shouted immediately, leaning in to closely observe the squirming boy.

“Uh… neither? I think I don’t want to play anymore…”

“But it’s too late now! Truth or dare?”

“...Truth.”

Karkat was trying to focus. He was. He held no interest in knowing the crushes of Eridan Ampora.

“So I’ve seen you hang around with Feferi a lot-”

Oh, _he knew it._

“Dare,” Eridan squeaked almost as soon as Roxy mentioned Feferi.

Feferi Peixes. He _knew_ it, which wasn’t a lot to say since everybody knew, but anyway.

Poor Eridan. He didn’t stand a chance with Feferi.

Dave smirked from his desk. “She dares you to answer the truth,” he said, and Karkat remembered it wasn’t his fucking business. So Strider could do one good thing.

“I really don’t want to play. Like. I really don’t wanna play? Can we not play?” Eridan asked, and if he got a little redder Karkat was sure he could have become an excellent pizza topping.

“What are you, a pussy? Answer her already. Or whatever, don’t. This game sucks, Rox.”

Karkat groaned, and let go of his pen. If there was no guardian, he would listen to music. Remembering with a bit of irony all the times he had insisted he didn’t care all that much for music, he reminded himself to apologize for Kanaya. It did well in drowning out the sound of assholes. 

* * *

When they arrived home, Karkat rushed out of the car automatically, grabbing his backpack and making sure to bang the car door just a little too strongly, with the explicit, noble purpose of pissing Kankri off. He had had enough of talking for at least the next eight hours.

He did not expect his brother to be already out and blocking his way. He usually left immediately for his apartment with that ridiculous smoker greasy kid, to study, or fuck, or annoy the poor soul with social-justice-warrior-wannabe-who-doesn’t-actually-care bullshit, whatever it was he liked doing.

"Karkat." he said, and it was softer than Karkat had ever heard him. Or, softer than he remembered having ever heard him. Kankri said a lot of things. Most of them useless.

"What the fuck do you want? I want to go home."

"Please be careful. I think something is coming up."

Okay. That was a plausible theory, but Karkat decided to ignore his heart dropping in his chest.

It was always plausible to think that something might happen, and Kankri almost never got things correct anyway. He had left for the most stupid reasons.

There was nothing wrong whatsoever. No proof.

"Why would you know, and why would you even care?" he growled, taking more than a little perverse pleasure in watching his brother’s features distort in anger, then twitch even as he tried to look normal.

"You are an absolutely insufferable kid, and it’s incredibly sad that you can’t even accept the truth when it’s offered to you."

"Okay." Karkat nodded, and tried to push past the older boy. He was blocked in his place.

Where the fuck was Kankri even hiding all that strength? Beneath those ridiculous oversized red sleeves?

"If things come to it, run. Grab Kanaya and run. Please promise that to me."

"Leave me!"

Karkat wriggled his arm free of the grasp, not that he would have been able to if Kankri hadn't let go in the first place. He ran past his brother, into the house, making sure to slam the door behind him. He only stopped to briefly dip his head in greeting to his parents, and once again to Kanaya, who was in the living room at their side, then run upstairs and fling himself on the bed.

He hated him. He hated him, his stupid morals, his utterly useless, ceaseless talking. He hated Strider and his fake, full of shit grin, hated the stupid shades and fake cool and confident attitude. Eridan Ampora, who had it all and was going to give it up to be a rebel without a cause, Roxy and her insufferable laughing and _she wasn’t even a high schooler, why the fuck was she there._

He hated them all.

When he relaxed after the outburst of frustration, he took one glance at the discarded backpack and the books that had fallen, then picked up his mathematics notes. It was ok. He would be a proper student, finish his homework, attend detention for the crime he had not committed, even put up with everyone with minimal complaining. Or make an effort to.

The only thing that worried him was the possible reason Kanaya was, for once, out of her room and having a discussion with their parents, but that was a problem that regarded her, and he could face another time.

For the moment, maths.

* * *

School halls were busy and loud and excellent ground for pushing around smaller kids. Like Karkat. Thankfully, Karkat had long since learned that pushing your way through the crowd was much, much easier if you glared at everyone like youwere the Winter Soldier on a mission. Not so thankfully, he couldn’t afford to do that after the incident.

He made his way through the halls, head ducked, trying to avoid the usual subjects with all his might. Like Vriska. Or Tavros. Vriska would have made fun of him. Tavros would have been disappointed and looked at him with sad eyes and then smiled and tried to pretend everything was ok, which would have just made Karkat feel even shittier. He just wanted to get to his classes in peace without encountering anyone who could possibly remind him of the recent developments.

"Dave, are you hurting yourself again?"

...fuck.

Karkat stopped. He actually stopped, like an idiot, the clichè idiot that stops to eavesdrop on an important conversation. In literally any story, this would be where he uncovered an important, life-changing secret, or overheard a conversation that he would deeply misinterpret. He knew better than to stop and listen.

Except he still fucking stopped to listen like the idiot he was.

"I'm not. Leave me the fuck alone, Rox." Strider said, and Karkat rolled his eyes.

"Dave! This isn't funny! Just come with us and leave him, what’s wrong with you?"

Dave sighed. Honest to God sighed. Dave Strider didn't sigh, it fell outside of his character stereotype, yet that was what he just did. "Fuck you, Rox," he said, so weak and defeated Karkat almost could’ve mistaken it for someone else, and then footsteps were approaching far too quickly for him to react in proper time, and do anything but stand around the corner, looking like an idiot, eyes probably way too wide and guilty as Strider spotted him and glared him down, moving aggressively towards him. Karkat shrank against the wall, hands curling into tentative fists, ready to either fight or shield himself, but the blond boy didn't do anything.

Nothing but growl ‘-and fuck you too, Vantas’ and leave. Leave Karkat alone, pressed against a wall like a weak idiot, with Roxy Lalonde glaring at him with some semblance of pity or rage or a mix of the two.

And then Roxy left, his hands relaxed, and Karkat realized belatedly that amidst the confusion, the bell had rung and he was tardy for English.

* * *

Detention this time was quiet, and for once, Karkat wished it weren't.

_'So you fuckers learned your lesson, I hope'_

_'Well, I'm finally not going to have to spend a single second with you anymore.'_

_'Hey, I was thinking, after these two hours we walk free and I guess you all suck ass, but not as much as I thought and I was kind of thinking we could go out together, like proper fucking idiots this time and get to know each other so I have proper reasons to hate you all'_

Nope. Wrong. And he wasn't exactly saying any of this out loud, so he might as well-

"Uh, so this is our last day, right?" Eridan Ampora, blessed asshole, asked hesitantly as soon as their supervisor left to go to the bathroom.

"No shit." Dave limited himself to commenting, while Roxy gave a noncommittal grunt. Well, that was new, and they were evidently both very pissed.

Still, that was his chance. To ask, very nonchalantly, if they wanted to get to know each other.

"Don't worry Karkles, we can go grab some shit at McDonald's and then vandalize more property. You can get to know us and our criminal tendencies," Dave mumbled from behind those annoying sunglasses, and Karkat's blood ran a fucking sprint to make his face as red as possible.

Fuck. Not thinking out loud had failed, of fucking course.

"-and then get more material for self-righteous, good, straight-A kid rambles. Or better, get to unlock all of our tragic as fuck backstories, and be the good kid who understands the special wild flowers. Of course, you don’t condone our actions, though, because you’re obviously so much better than-”

"Dave!" Roxy snapped, and the paler boy stopped dead in his tracks.

Karkat really wanted to speak, he did, but all he could do was stare at whoever the fuck knew what, and gape like a really dumb fish. He looked at Roxy, who had gone back to boring holes into her empty notebook, Eridan, who just looked very uncomfortable, and of course Strider. Strider, whose lips had gone pale from how tight he was forcing them, who thought Karkat was just a self-righteous privileged kid who got off on others’ suffering and of course he thought that, Karkat was an asshole, and he had every right to-

No.

Fuck that.

He wasn't going to care about Dave fucking Strider, or Roxy Lalonde, or Eridan Ampora and his tentative exploration of edgy teen rebellion. He was going to take his punishment without whining, go back home, and forget about this incident, and forget about any of these kids. He was going to do just that.

The supervisor came back, and in what seemed to be both five minutes and three hours of silence, dismissed all of them with the most uncaring attitude Karkat had ever seen.

That was it. He was free. He just had to walk out, get to Kankri's car, go home and-

"Dave, this isn't healthy! How are you even managing to get by with those wounds, is Dirk hurt that badly, too? He's not even responding to my messages, please, would you just _talk_ to me!"

"Rox, leave me the fuck alone, already!" Strider shouted, and marched on with heavy steps - that was new, he always was so light on his feet - straight past Karkat, sprinting towards the door.

Well, that was worrying, but definitely not enough to warrant any sort of investigation, Karkat told himself, and tried to avoid Roxy's eyes when she reached him too. She looked like she was about to cry, but instead just straightened her posture and marched outside. In the exact opposite direction her cousin had taken.

Well. Fuck.

Karkat Vantas whipped out his phone to type a short message for Kankri not to wait up, and, in what would probably come to be one of the worst, most idiotic, most self-jerking and meddling decisions of his life, ran after Dave Strider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this took forever! Wow! Why? Er... I might or might have not written this, deleted, and rewritten it... Like. Four times. Save me from my own perfectionism. BUT, now it's done and uh, I think I'm satisfied, so that's good. Caro's better at not taking forever, so hopefully the next chapter will come out sooner xD  
> As always, we hope you enjoyed, please feed the authors comments to motivate them. They are fragile creatures that thrive on feedback after hard work. Ph, if anyone wants to talk Homestuck or writing, feel free to message me on Tumblr (@deadliestlittleone)  
> \- NIMS
> 
> It's taken so long but we're both really happy to finally have it out so enjoy guys!! Insert deep quote here.  
> \- CARO

**Author's Note:**

> Hoi hoi there! Nims here. I'm one of the authors for this fic! My coauthor wants to maintain a... cryptid personality, so for a while you might only hear from me, but give him a round of applause for the first chapter. 
> 
> So this will be a wild journey, born out a roleplay. We will take turns writing chapters and we both hope you enjoy the story and we actually manage to write it - Until Next Time, lovelies!  
> NIMS


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